Arrhythmia patterns during and after hospitalization for COVID-19 infection detected via patch-based mobile cardiac telemetry

Background: Coronavirus infection is the cause of the current world-wide pandemic. Cardiovascular complications occur in 20-30% of patients with COVID-19 infection including myocardial injury and arrhythmias. Current understanding of specific arrhythmia type and frequency is limited.

Objective: We aimed to analyze arrhythmia type and frequency in patients with COVID infection, identifying arrhythmia patterns over time during hospitalization and post discharge utilizing a patch based mobile cardiac telemetry system.

Methods: A prospective cohort study during the COVID-19 pandemic was performed. We included in our study patients hospitalized with COVID-19 infection who had a patch-based mobile telemetry device placed for cardiac monitoring.

Results: Quantitative reports for 59 patients were available for analysis. Arrhythmias were detected in 72.9% of patients and at a consistent frequency throughout the monitoring period in 52.9%-89.5% of patients daily. The majority of arrhythmias were SVT (59.3% of patients) and AF (22.0%). New onset AF was noted in 15.0% of all patients and was significantly associated with older age (OR 1.4 for 5 yrs. difference; 95% CI 1.03-2.13). Of 9 patients who were discharged with continued patch monitoring, 7 (78%) had arrhythmic events during their outpatient monitoring period.

Conclusion: In COVID-19 patients arrhythmias were observed throughout hospitalization with a consistent daily frequency. Patients continued to exhibit cardiac arrhythmias after hospital discharge of a type and frequency similar to that seen during hospitalization. These findings suggest that the risk of arrhythmia associated with COVID infection remains elevated throughout the hospital course as well as following hospital discharge.